This week we’re featuring Kalita Kasar, author of the recently released High Ball The Keeper.

Tell us about The Keeper. What inspired you to write it? How long did it take you to write it?

The Keeper started life as a series of email posts to a friend about this idea I had for two characters in England in the 18th century. It has grown a lot since that early 'telling' and is quite a different story now than it was then. Along the way, I discovered Rictor Norton and his excellent works on Homosexuality in 18th Century London and so the Macaronis of that time became incorporated in the tale. From concept to finished novella, it took about three years.

Lots of work and research and sweat and tears went into its creation and it stalled for a while but for AugNoWriMo 2007  I decided I would do a complete rewrite and the story you see today was born.

Tell us one thing about yourself that your readers would be surprised to know.

When I was a kid, I had a nickname in my family of "Lamb bit". This was not because I was by any means sheepish, but harks back to a day on vacation with my family on a farm. I was playing tag with my sisters and I tripped and fell, and landed in (not on) the carcass of a dead lamb. The smell was incredible and took several days to get rid of. I don't know how surprising this is, but it might be amusing.

Do you have a favorite genre to read? To write? Is there any one genre you find it easier to write in than the others?

I love to read and my tastes in reading are fairly wide. I will read historical, contemporary, paranormal, romance (naturally), and general fiction. I just love a well told tale. Historical is one of my favorites though and I consume vast amounts of historical fiction.

As far as writing goes, I think that contemporary is the easiest to write, and especially when I make up my own setting and get to build a world around that.

What’s the best thing about writing? How about the worst thing?

The best thing about writing is when I get really involved with my story and characters and can lose myself in their world and forget my own for a time. I hope that those times come across in the writing and the readers can lose themselves in it, too. The worst thing is not having any ideas. This has happened to me sometimes and I can quite literally go insane at those times.

Character or plot, which comes first?

I usually start by hearing voices in my head. The characters talk to me, tell me something about themselves and I write it down and say "then what happened?" and that's how it starts. My partner can tell when I am hearing the voices and knows that something is brewing.

What is your favorite way to spend a rainy day?

In bed, wrapped up in my duvet, with someone to bring me coffee and massage my neck…oh you meant in reality? Sorry, I was fantasizing. I usually spend rainy days writing. I don't like to go out in wet weather and will do almost anything to avoid it.

What are you working on now?

Right now, I am slowly reading my way through some thick, dusty tomes on homosexuality in Europe in the 18th century. Can we see a pattern here? I am mulling over ideas for another foray into m/m historical fiction, but it is in the planning stages at present. The voices are becoming persistent though.